Fire and Rescue Management in the UK - Case Study Example

Introduction Managing is amongst the most significant human activities. Since the time people started forming societal organizations to achieve goals and objectives they couldn’t achieve as single individuals, managing thus has been necessary for ensuring the organization of individual efforts. Various organized groups over time have become big and the duty of managers has also been increasing in significance and also complexity. Hereafter, managerial theory has presently become critical in the manner managers manage intricate organizations. Among the organisations which require high level of management is fire fighting services. Definition of Management and Management Objectives Management is defined as the art or science, of attaining objectives through individuals. There are principally three management objectives. Ensuring organizational targets and goals are met; secondly looking after health, safety and welfare of staff. Thirdly protecting the apparatus and the resources of the organization, with includes the human resources. (Stoner et al, 2003) Management theories Theories are viewpoints with which individuals make logic of their world experiences (Stoner et. al. 1995). In management we have different theories, which will be underscored in the following section. Classical Organizational Theory In class of management theory encompasses Max Weber’s bureaucratic theory and Henri Fayol’s administrative theory. According to Weber he argues that the western civilization was changing from ‘wertrational’ (value oriented) thinking, emotional action (action drawn from emotions). The bureaucracy was imagined as a big machine for achieving its aims in the most competent manner possible. Nonetheless, Weber was careful of bureaucracy as observed that the more completely realized, the more bureaucracy become “depersonalizes”. (Koontz, 1980) Human relations The key scholar in this group is Elton Mayo. In his experiment Mayo demonstrated that, the team dynamics and the social constitute of an organization are extremely significant forces either against or for higher productivity. This conclusion led for a call for bigger involvement for the employees, higher trust and also openness in the organisation working environment, and better attention to groups and teams in a work place. (Koontz, and Weihrich, 1990) The contingency or situational theory The contingency or situational theory affirms that when a manager makes a decision, he/she ought to take into consideration every aspect of the present circumstances and act on the aspects that are vital to the circumstances at hand. Essentially, it is an approach of “it depends”. For instance, an autocratic style can be best in one circumstance while participative or facilitative leadership style can be best in another circumstance. (Fleet and Peterson, 1994) Management Functions To appreciate management, it is very important that we divide it into five managerial functions that are; planning, leading, organizing, controlling and staffing. Planning entails selecting objectives and missions and the actions to realize them. Leading is to influence people so that they contribute to organization and also group goals; it deals mainly with the interpersonal side of managing. Organizing is that part of management which involves creating an intended structure of roles for individuals to fill up in an organization. Controlling, for instance, budget for expenditure, is the measuring and also correcting of subordinates activities to make sure that events conform to plans. It assesses performance against objectives and plans, illustrates where negative differences exist, and, by putting in motion actions to correct deviations, helps ensure accomplishment of plans. Staffing entails filling and keeping filled the vacancies in the organization arrangement. This is accomplished through identification of work-force requirements; recruitment selection, placement, promoting, appraising and planning the employees careers, compensating. Training and development is also part of staffing. (Stoner, et al, 2003) Leadership theories and leadership styles in practice and in comparison with other emergency services Leadership is all about influencing other people in the organization to accomplish a task. It involves directing an organization in that it becomes more coherent and cohesive. Leadership style can therefore be defined as approach for providing direction. It includes motivation. There are various leadership styles that exist in management. They include authoritarian or autocratic, participative or democratic, delegative or free reign leadership. (Newstrom, 1997) Autocratic: emergency This is also called formal type of leadership. In this type of leadership, the leader simply tells employees how he or she wants the work done and what he wants employees to do without getting their views. This type of leadership is effective when the leader has all the information that is important or necessary to solve the problem. This leadership style is very essential especially when the time at hand is very minimal to incorporate employees’ views such, as in an emergency situation. Authoritarian leadership also includes leaders making all decisions which are crucial during an emergency. Democratic: staff training Participative leadership involves other people on the decision making process. The leader in this case can include one of the employees when making decisions for the organization (Newstrom, 1997). According to Newstrom (1997) Participative leadership can involve the leader simply selling the idea to the employees in the management. For instance the goals of an organization can be elaborated to the employees. This can make certain that the staffs are trained in the process of the manager involving the employees in decisions and helping them with their assignments. Laissez faire This is also another leadership style that is always used by managers and leaders in organizations. This involves allowing employees to make the decisions at the work place. Decisions that are normally made are usually very diverse. They could include arrival time at the work place etc. This method is highly used when employees are in a position to analyze the situation at hand. In most of the instances where delegative or free reign leadership is used, the employees have gone through organizational learning and training and therefore they are fully equipped in handling most of the issues arising. Research shows that this method is very effective when the task is delegated to a specific group of people History Currently, the fire services are experiencing unparalleled changes due to the industrial disagreement which occurred in 2002/2003. On its part, the government has formulated its vision for Fire service, the government has also produced a keystone document and laws to reach achieve its vision. The vision is far reaching and exclusive and is supposed to have crucial impact on fire services. This section takes a historically account of the changes in fire services that have taken place over the last 27 years or so. (Kemp, 2004) 2004 new Fire Rescue service Bill In 2004, a new fire and Rescue services bill was enacted which replaced the old Act that was in operation since 1947. The new Act is bound to bring some good changes to the fire services. As it can be noted, fire services department is extremely traditional operated with highly prescriptive measures and has little room for local intercession. The discipline procedures in the fire services is still based on military model which is rigid (Kemp, 2004) 1998 local government review Subsequent to local government review of 1998, many of fire services were transformed to fire authorities. These are independent bodies which functions under varied governance structure. In 2004 many of these bodies turned into presenting authorities by their own account. (Kemp, 2004) 1995 “in line of fire” report The audit commissions carried out an examination of fire services in 1995 and afterwards came up with a report named “in line of fire”, which generally made a recommendation that they should be a change in fire fighting services, the old reactive fire fighting system to a proactive fire prevention method. The report formed the basis of the current changes. The report highlighted that, the work of fire services should be to prevention of fires, injuries from fires and prevent loss of property and not merely reacting to fire emergencies when they happen. (Marlow, 2000) 1977 fire-fighters dispute Before 1977 fire fighters received poor payments when compared to other employees in the public service. Fire fighting work is risky and after retirement the fire fighters have a reduced life expectancy. However, the fire fighters were working for many hours and their human resource was poorly management in generally, this resulted to a nine week strike. The result was introduction of reimbursement system that connected fire fighters salary with top quartile of nationwide standard of manual employees’ salaries. Though this system worked at its initial years of implementation, it did not give fire fighters any avenue of negotiating any modifications. Thus, for many years the efforts of employers and mangers of fire service to bring new moderate logical changes failed, as a result the sector has been behind in modernisation program when compared with other public segment services. (Marlow, 2000) Roles and responsibilities of staff have change Over this time the role and responsibilities of the fire fighters have also changed, during the 1980s, the fire fighters were mainly involved in responding to fire emergencies, typically fighting to put off the fire, however with changing environment, laws and policies the fire fighters have taken a more pro-active approach and they duties have changed to encompass preventive measures. This has called for fire fighters having a duty to preventive measures which entails educating the public on dangers of fires and how to manage fires when they occur, and other preventives measures. (Marlow, 2000) Rydin, (1998) states that, over time the fire services in UK have changed it role and now it has focused on mainly on four aspects, which includes, more prevention, enhanced protection, efficient emergency response and better value for money. The tangible benefits from these new changes have been a reduction in numbers of deaths caused by fires and less injuries. National international changes in the fire and rescue services The fire and rescue policy changes in the UK have centred mostly on the following aspects: 1. Community Safety Programmes 2. Specialist Appliances 3. Measures of reaction to fire Incidents 4. Operating processes in emergency control room 5. Fire Station full time Working Arrangements (Kemp, 2004) According to Fire and Rescue service Act of 2004, section 21 gives the secretary of state responsibility to undertake regular re-evaluation of national framework of fire and rescue services. The framework basically is the UK’s strategic plan concerning fire services. The present framework which runs form 2006 to 2008 is the one being used. The framework calls for reduction of fires, the reduction road accidents and also reduces other emergency occurrence. Changes on international stage The international community have taken new approach to handling fires, in 2003 it was agreed that countries should formulate an Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP). According to the international fire fighting bodies this approach will be able to produce a direction for modernisation of national fire fighting services (Gill, A. et al, 2000). It is a good practice for countries to produce this plan annually. In addition the international changes have acknowledged that fire fighting policies can not be limited to designs of buildings, constructions, or the changing transport plans. Rather today, they is new approach which requires fire fighters to assess their rescue approaches in when dealing with material such as carbon-fibre aircraft, driverless trains and other high risk equipments. There is also an increased requirement for countries to collaborate at national level on sharing information regarding fire fighting and management of fires since the importance of fire fighting services has increased so much in the recent times. (Adams, et al, 2003) Conclusion In ending, it has to be reaffirmed that fire services in the UK are experiencing unparalleled changes due to the industrial disagreement which occurred in 2002/2003, though were solved later. Fire fighting services are crucial in any country and require effective leadership and management styles. Has it has been reviewed, management is a process of structuring and upholding an environment with an aim of efficiently attaining selected objectives and goals. On the other hand, leadership is a very important aspect in any organization. This is because it greatly determines the success therein. There are various leadership styles that can be incorporated in overall running of an organization. It can be deduced that different management and leadership style can be used in fire fighting services depending on the situation and occasion. Appendix Table 1: Five main widespread causes of fires in many buildings Causes of fire 1999 2000 2001 2002 Arson 124 120 131 Neglected oven 56 73 58 83 Technical fault 54 56 48 46 Open flame 16 41 23 32 Other 364 405 394 354 Total 670 729 688 671 (Source: www.raddningstjansten.goteborg.se ) Reference: Adams, W. et al (2003): Managing tragedies; Understanding conflict over common pool resources: Science, 3 Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004: http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040021.htm Gill, A. et al (2000): Fires and their effects in the Wet-Drytropics of Australia; Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Kemp, C (2004): Modernisation of the Fire and Rescue Service; Somerset County Council Koontz, H (1961): The Management Theory Jungle; in Journal of the Academy of Management; December Koontz H (1980): The Management Theory Revisited; in Academy of Management Review, April Koontz, H and Weihrich, H (1990): Essentials of Management, Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill Newstrom, W. (1997): Organizational Behaviour; Human Behaviour at Work; New York: McGraw-Hill Marlow, D (2000): A Guide to Fire Management in Queensland (incorporating fire management theory and departmental practice); (Queensland; Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy) Rydin, Y (1998): The enabling local state and urban development; Resources; rhetoric and planning in east London. Urban Studies, Stoner J. A. et al (2003): Management (New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India), Sixth Edition. Read More